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Sermon By Committee

Instead, I facilitated the conversation for those who actually did the teaching: Jason Handschumacher and Kelly Starnes.

Who are they? Not hired guns. Not preachers-in-training. Not even experts for a day. Instead, they are regular people from the body of Good Shepherd. Jason is a physical therapist and Kelly is in pharmaceutical sales.

And yet both have walked the long, difficult, faith-filled journey from financial crisis to financial stability. From debt-full to debt-free. From keeping to giving. From anxiety to peace.

So they shared their stories with the church yesterday. I simply asked the questions and then tried to stay out of the way.

Here are some of Jason’s keenest insights:

Making a budget with your spouse is more of a communication tool than a financial one.

Talking about money connects generations . . . some of us will need to change our family trees when it comes to the philosophy of money while others get to pass on what we learned.

You should talk about your will with your heirs while you are still alive rather than using it to “get back” at a family member from beyond the grave.

Tell your children than when they have $10, they really have $7 . . . one of those dollars automatically goes to God while the other two are put in savings. Adults should live the same way. (Most American adults spend $11.50 of every $10 they have!).

God is a giver.

To live into our status as made in the image of God, we will need to be givers as well.

There IS such a thing as “selfish giving”: when you give in order to get something in return.

When it comes to mission trips, those who give are as heroic as those who go.

Kelly added the perspective of a single adult to the mix:

Cash money and plastic cards create very different emotions in us. When we use cash, we feel it. When we use plastic (credit or debit), there is a sense of unreality to it . . . and that’s why we typically spend 12-18% more with plastic than with cash.

Singles need a good financial plan because there is no fall back for them when crisis hits.

The flow of money in a family represents the value system under which that family operates.

Singles: choose ye this day who you will serve. Decide your values today, not when you meet someone who may or may not be “the one.”

Sometimes singles size up a potential mate based on his or her financial statues. Many times, singles look for a new mate who will be grant security; one who will “save” them. The truth is, we already have a Savior and He can’t be improved upon.